Swissto12 active electronically steered antenna technology. Photo: Swissto12

SES selected Swissto12 to develop large aperture electronically steered antenna for its customer user terminals, Swissto12 announced on Feb. 27. This is Swissto12’s first antenna contract with SES.

The antennas will support SES’s second-generation Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation, O3b mPOWER, which has been operational since 2024 and aims to provide high-performance connectivity to remote areas.

“This agreement represents a significant milestone for our electronically steered antenna product line, and is the first contract for these products with a major satellite operator,” Mathieu Billod, head of Satcom User Terminals at Swissto12 told Via Satellite.

Swissto12 will develop full duplex Ka-band aperture electronically steered antennas for mobile backhaul use cases. 

Billod said the company’s technology can replace mechanically motorized antennas without the performance penalty usually associated with active arrays. He added that the company’s 3D printed aperture, in which transmit and received functions go through the same physical aperture or panel, allows Swissto12 to package “significant performance” in small form factor and at an attractive cost.

“Swissto12’s solution which utilizes additive manufacturing is anticipated to offer a highly compelling performance and cost trade-off, crucial for this demanding application,” said Jean-Pierre Choffray, vice president of Systems Engineering at SES. “This solution is expected to deliver the benefits of electronic steering typically associated with small-sized active arrays.”

Swissto12 is best known for its small Geostationary (GEO) satellite platform, the HummingSat, but the company also manufactures radio frequency (RF) products.